Monday, February 2, 2009

Last Thursday Gregory Roberts gave a very engaging talk for his show, "Suck On This," currently up at the Tahoe Gallery. Above, a set of canoodling teapots and some groupthink Fezes, made of carved honeycomb ceramic.

Several pieces in the show are ceramic vessels modeled after plastic water bottles, wrapped with images that were drawn from the New York Times. Daily effluvia is given a feeling of handmade permanence. Roberts said that clay felt like an appropriate material for aping water bottles -- like the plastic cylinders that are destined to sit in landfills for thousands of years, "clay lasts forever."

Below, a gallery-goer stands in front of a metal sheet, where an image of Condoleeza's Rice's smile is formed by ceramic casts of male nipples, affixed to the metal with magnets. Roberts admitted a pseudo-obsession with the former Secretary of State.

Other works: bombs that could be suckled, and a ring of gilt ceramic water bottles set on a rotatable mirror. On the "labels" of the water bottles were lipsticked lips; a microphone was set up on the table in front of them. The gilt bottles reflect each other like a ring or mirrors enclosing a fundamental emptiness. They seemed to speak of the empty talk that fills us invisibly and passes through our system like water.

Ha! I wasn't trying to be censorious. Actually, I think he said "clay lasts forever. It lasts for f@*!ing ever." Though I should have some disclaimer on the blog that most quotes might be subject to the drift of paraphrase -- especially if a few days have passed between the event and the blog post.

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